Did Google just kill PR agencies? | ZDNet: "Lots of links, lots of repeated key words, and multiple postings of a press release to different sites, are all red flags to Google under the new rules. Such actions are viewed by Google as blatant attempts to trick its algorithm into ranking a site higher than its allotted position.
Yet these have all become standard practices at PR agencies. Did Google just kill the PR business?
The fact of the matter is that Google and PR agencies earn their money in the same way: promoting businesses. Google does it by selling ads on its AdWords or AdSense networks, and in return it directs lots of traffic to the site.
They don't see themselves in this way, but PR agencies are essentially engaged in a form of SEO (Search Engine Optimization). Google is at war with SEO companies and is trying to wipe them out."

Google Search Updates Influence Demand Media's Entry into ...
EcommerceBytesGoogle's position as the dominant search engine has a ripple effect on all kinds of online content. Ideally, the most quality content receives the highest ...Demand Media seems to be addressing by expanding into ecommerce. The company recently purchased Society6 for $94 million in a combined cash and stock deal....EcommerceBytes

How low-paid workers at 'click farms' create appearance of online popularity | Technology | The Guardian: "Dispatches found one boss in Bangladesh who boasted of being "king of Facebook" for his ability to create accounts and then use them to create hundreds or thousands of fake likes.
Click farms have become a growing challenge for companies which rely on social media measurements – meant to indicate approval by real users – to estimate the popularity of their products.
For the workers, though, it is miserable work, sitting at screens in dingy rooms facing a blank wall, with windows covered by bars, and sometimes working through the night. For that, they could have to generate 1,000 likes or follow 1,000 people on Twitter to earn a single US dollar."

Usable Pages. Pages should be simple, clear, provide unique value, and meet the average user’s reason for coming to the page. Google wants to serve up results that will satisfy a user’s search intent. It does not want to serve up results that users will visit, click the back button, and select the next result.(source infra)

In Mastering Machine Intelligence, Google Rewrites Search Engine Rules | TechCrunch: " . . . Understanding Google’s policies and not running afoul of them is critical to maintaining placement on Google search results. . .. Here’s what SEO experts need to focus on now: Clean, well-structured site architecture. Sites should be easy to use and navigate, employ clean URL structures that make hierarchical sense, properly link internally, and have all pages, sections and categories properly labeled and tagged. . . . (read more at link above)

After backlash Yahoo's Tumblr quietly restores adult, NSFW blogs | ZDNet: "Within 24 hours Tumblr . . . quietly returned the blogs back to internal and external search, and folded its "Adult" blogs into the wider "NSFW" category. When reached for a statement, Tumblr's Head of Communications told ZDNet, The two options ("NSFW" and "Adult") were clearly causing confusion, so we’ve dropped the extra option. If your blog contains anything too sexy for the average workplace, simply check "Flag this blog as NSFW" so people in Safe Mode can avoid it. Your blog will still be indexed by third-party search engines." (read more at link above)

Google Maps out-Yelps Yelp: "It's more than just rattling off names, numbers and addresses like the white pages. Explore is a highly visual part of Google Maps that gives you a quick survey of the best options around you across five categories: Eat, Drink, Shop, Play, Sleep. The tool incorporates all the reviews Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) acquired when it bought Zagat, and it combines those with Google's own user-generated ratings." (read more at link above)

What is Structured Data and Why You Need To Know Now: "Structured Data Outline
I. Definition: Data on a website that can be classified by a search engine.
II. 4 Types of Structured Data: Schema.org – is a collaborative structured data effort by Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo!
Microformats – basic, simplest form of structured data
Microdata – next generation including HTML5
RDFa – most functionality, works with all XML-based languages
JSON-LD – extract and store data from all of the above . . . ." (read more at link above)

Google's Search Market Share in China Falls to Just 3%Search Engine WatchWhile Google is the behemoth throughout most of the world when it comes to search engine traffic and search share, China is definitely not amongst the countries with high Google usage. In fact,Google ranks fifth of all the search engines in China, and ...

When You Search Google, Only 13% of the Screen Has Real ResultsMashableBut an entrepreneur has pointed out that the search engine's site design doesn't cater much to showing organic search results these days. Aaron Harris, the cofounder of Tutorspree, explained in a blog post that he looked at "the amount of real estate ...

Four Schools of SEO Success ThoughtSearch Engine JournalClients of mine understand that SEO is truly something that requires effort on both sides, and potential clients hear it all the time. Unlike many other industries, there are many different ways to define “success” in Search Engine Optimization. Below ...more at link above

AltaVista is dead. Here's why it's so hard to compete with Google.Washington PostToday, the U.S. market is dominated by just two companies: Microsoft (whose technology also powers Yahoo's search engine) and Google (whose technology also powers the AOL and Ask search engines). Internationally, Yandex and Baidu have significant ... I think you’d have to ask them but it seems like they’re spending on the order of $10 million per year on it. There were a ton of search engines in the 90s. It was a much cheaper problem. Also, before Google came along [the incumbents] weren’t very good. Altavista was the best one before Google came along. (read more at link above)

ComScore: Google's Search Engine Market Share Holds Steady in JuneWall Street JournalGoogle Inc.'s (GOOG) leading market share of the search engine market in the U.S. was flat in June from the prior month, while Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT) share edged up slightly, according to market researcher comScore Inc. (SCOR). Google's share of the ...

3 SEO Tactics That Still WorkClickZIf you combine such observations with what you read in the webmaster guidelines from either Bing orGoogle, you might infer that a lot of old-school SEO just isn't necessary anymore. While there are indeed multiple paths ... Some might even suggest ...more news below

Results Only Fraction of Google Search DisplayNBC Bay Area (blog)Born 10 years ago, the Google Internet search engine has grown into the electronic center of human knowledge by indexing billions of web pages as well as images, books and videos. On 15 September 1997 Larry Page and Sergey Brin, two 24 year-old ...

Phanteguin: A Phantom & Penguin One-Two Punch From GoogleSearch Engine WatchMay was a rough month for webmasters, SEO professionals, and business owners. ... And when you speak with someone who's been hit by Panda, Penguin, or Phantom, you can hear the anger, frustration, and fear in their voices. ... Note, I've seen a drop in ...(read more at link above)

Russia's Mail.Ru Drops Google Search, Launches Own Search ...By Jennifer SleggThere is a new international search engine on the scene. Mail.Ru, which is also known as My.com, has been serving Google search results for several years but has now dropped Google in order to serve search results with their own new ...Search Engine Watch

SEO Tutorial: How to increase your Google rankings? - SiteGroundGoogle has the most dynamically changing algorithm to consider for search engine optimization so often when we talk about SEO factors, we mean factors that ...www.siteground.com/tutorials/sem/seo/

Microsoft's 'Bing Boards' allows users to curate search results | PCWorld: "Microsoft’s push to make its Bing search engine more social will take it in a new direction—actually letting a select group of users curate results.
Microsoft’s “experiment,” known as Bing Boards, will allow a small group of food and lifestyle bloggers, experts, and social influencers to cultivate their own selection of search results on a given topic. The Board will be a visual collection of images, videos and links that tell the story from the blogger’s point of view, Microsoft said.
These results won’t replace the search result that Bing normally returns, but will sit alongside them within the middle column of Bing’s search results, Chen Fang, program manager of Bing Experiences, said in a blog post. . . ."

NSA controversy boosts interest in ‘private’ Internet search engines | The Raw Story: "Internet users are taking a fresh look at “privacy” search engines that do not store data or track online activity, in light of the flap over US government surveillance. While Google’s market share has not seen a noticeable dent, privacy search engines like US-based DuckDuckGo and European-based Ixquick have seen jumps in traffic from users seeking to limit their online tracks." (read more at link above)

Google Uses Search to Predict Box Office Winners | News & Opinion | PCMag.com: " . . ."Whether it's general curiosity or full engagement with a film, moviegoers are constantly searching for information," Google said. "Online engagement through search allows for the ability to interact with moviegoers in real time, giving them the chance to ask questions and receive immediate feedback."
This presents an opportunity for movie marketers to guide conversation through search campaigns. "Ultimately, it is this online engagement that gives us tangible insight into intent," the report said, "arming movie marketers with actionable data in their never-ending quest to quantify 'movie magic.'"
It's unclear if Google saw this coming with The Internship, which follows Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson as they work their way through the Google internship program. The movie only debuted at No. 4 with $18.1 million, according to The Huffington Post."

How to Win in the Google Stock Market - Search Engine Watch (#SEW): " . . . . Optimizing your AdWords-driven sales funnel is like buying 10 shares of Apple and having the ability to perform a personal stock split every time you find a new winner.
Increasing the Value of Your Keyword Portfolio
Generally, the place to begin is with your ads, seeking to convert more qualified impressions into clicks.
For example, if you provide fresh healthy vegan meals anywhere in the U.S., one of your keywords would likely be the exact match term [vegan meals]. . . ."

The Top SEO Trends of 2013Huffington PostWith Panda, Google officially waged war on webmasters who use black-hat SEO techniques to manipulate search engines and frowned upon poor onsite user experience. Matt Cutts, the head of search quality at Google, has made it abundantly clear that web ...

How to Win in the Google Stock MarketSearch Engine WatchThe Google search engine has a hidden side. Because it sells ad space based on a keyword auction, it's actually a stock market for words. If you bid on "donate your car Sacramento" or "DUI Attorney Houston", you'll find that the market for those words ...

Google Search Now ShowsPSFKGoogle Search can now deliver instant and detailed information on the nutritional value of food, making the decision between fries or boiled potatoes a simple one. This new tool uses Google Voice Search that that can be used from a desktop or ...

How to Use Google Webmaster Tools to Maximize Your SEO ...By Jayson DeMersGoogle provides a number of tools for your SEO arsenal. The most obvious is Google Analytics, which offers an in-depth analytics suite to help even the most basic user understand and improve traffic to their website. But Google Webmaster ...Search Engine Watch

Disavowed: Secrets of Google's Most Mysterious Tool | SEOmoz: "Can you use the Disavow Tool if you haven't received a manually penalized? For example, will it work for Penguin?The answer: maybe.Here's a reminder: Google updates like Panda and Penguin are part of Google's overall algorithm. They automatically affect your rankings without direct human intervention. On the other hand, a manual penalty is often applied when you violate Google's guidelines. These can be both applied and lifted manually by Google's Webspam team.Google representatives, including Matt Cutts, have gone on record to say the Disavow Tool could be used to help if you’ve been hit by Penguin (an algorithmic action), but also suggests that this applies to links that also violate Google’s Quality Guidelines." (read more at the link above)more news below

SEO: 5 Things You Can Do Today - AdcieoHate to burst any preconceived bubbles, but SEO is a process and needs to be tailored to the organization and unique goals. Here are five easy tips to get your ...adcieo.com/blog/seo-5-things-you-can-do-today/

Are You Ready To Take The Big Blow? Penguin 2.0 Is On the Way! | Search Engine Journal: "A reduction in the number of clusters of the same domain name showing on the first page of Google’s search is expected this year. While Penguin 2.0 promises to make the search results on the first page even more diverse; in all likelihood you may see clustered results from the same domain name there too when you click to the second results page."

Google Search scratches its brain 500 million times a dayCNET (blog)Google's search engine is powerful, but not all-knowing. Every month Google processes 100 billion queries, and typically returns results with microsecond speed. However, on a fairly regular basis, Google's search engine has to think a bit harder to ...

Understanding SEO in 2013Business Review USASearch Engine Optimization (SEO) has changed greatly in the last few years. Have you managed to stay ahead of the curve, ... Google Panda. In February 2011, Google rolled out a massive update aimed at lower quality websites that were obviously ranking ...

Rivals to Google: Search HarderWall Street JournalRivals to Google: Search Harder. Google Inc.'s search engine runs quickly, but a European Union antitrust probe into the web-searcher is taking a bit longer. On April 25, the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, told Google's rivals who had ...

Google search gets smarter, goes hands-freeCNN InternationalAbout two-thirds of Web searches in the United States are done through Google, with Bing and Yahoo trailing far behind. We spoke to ... Google's search team is obsessed with the "Star Trek" computer, the fictional, omnipresent and invisible voice ...

Google+, Google Search More Intertwined With App IntegrationHuffington PostNow the search engine is extending the usefulness of G+ Sign-In to its search results, it announced on Tuesday. Users' activity within apps while signed into Google+ will now inform Google search of what's hot, the most popular audio files on ...

Post-Penguin Link Building Strategies - Pruning Your LinksClickZThe Penguin update is aimed at cleaning out websites that violate Google'sWebmaster Guidelines by decreasing the violator's search engine rankings. However, link pruning is a process that all companies, of all sizes, SMB or enterprises, should be ...ClickZ

Search Engine Land
Google's head of search spam, Matt Cutts announced new updates with Google's Penguin and Panda algorithms and new link network targets in 2013. Matt announced this ... Google's search quality team is working on a major update to the Penguinalgorithm ...
Search Engine Land

Matt Cutts: Merchant Quality to Affect Google Search Rankings
Search Engine Watch
Search Engine Watch contacted Andrew Davis, Director of Marketing at CPC Strategy to gain some more insight into how Google has been using merchant quality signals. Davis notes that many of these are "unconfirmed assumptions from dealing with the ...

10 Tips for Tackling Google Penguin Efficiently
Business 2 Community
Google Penguin Update was launched on 24th April, 2012 in order to stop unnatural link building. It penalizes sites that were following an unnatural linking pattern by using similar anchor text urls, too many site wide backlinks, too many links from ...

Why We Should Stop Worrying About Google Updates | Business 2 Community: "Danny Sullivan, from Search Marketing Land, posed this question to a room full of eager SEO pros during one jam-packed session: “Who here worries about Google updates?” Everyone’s hand shot up. Then Sullivan asked, “Who has been hit by a Google penalty?” 99% of the hands in the room dropped.
That got the wheels turning in our heads. If we care about our user’s experience, don’t spam or do other stuff frowned on by Google, then why do we need to worry? It’s like speeding on the freeway. If you don’t do it, you don’t need to worry about the cops pulling you over!"

5 Reasons Google Shut Down Its Affiliate Network - GeekWire: "Given the scale issue, Google’s decision to launch an affiliate network was always perplexing. Google originally positioned the move as a way to give customers two tools to manage ads on a Cost per Acquisition (CPA) basis (GAN and Conversion Optimizer). Guess which product won? As Per Peterson, co-founder of Impact Radius, points out Google has always had a love/hate relationship with affiliate marketing. The Wild West mentality of the industry constantly ran afoul of Google’s own algorithms. And it’s hard to ignore the irony that last year’s rollouts of Penguin and Panda specifically targeted many affiliate sites as being too spammy. Yet some of these were the same affiliates that GAN was trying to work with."

Google Said to Offer Search Page Change to Settle Probe - Bloomberg: "Google submitted a final package of commitments to the European Commission aimed at creating more distinction in Internet searches between Google’s own services and those of its competitors, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the offer isn’t public. Google also proposed to offer links to rival search engines, the person said. An EU spokesman declined to comment on the offer. Google’s offer this month formalized a package of remedies it submitted to EU regulators earlier this year after it was asked to address allegations that it promotes its own specialist search-services, copies rivals’ travel and restaurant reviews, and has agreements with websites and software developers that stifle competition in the advertising industry."

Google has a single towering obsession: It wants to build the Star Trek computer. - Slate Magazine: "So I went to Google to interview some of the people who are working on its search engine. And what I heard floored me. “The Star Trek computer is not just a metaphor that we use to explain to others what we're building,” Singhal told me. “It is the ideal that we're aiming to build—the ideal version done realistically.” He added that the search team does refer to Star Trek internally when they’re discussing how to improve the search engine. “It comes up often,” Singhal said. “For instance, we might say, ‘Captain Kirk never pulled out a keyboard to ask a question.’ So in that way it becomes one of the design principles—we see that because the Star Trek computer actively relies on speech, if we want to do that we need to work to push the barrier of speech recognition and machine understanding.”"

Atomization - The Shatzkin Files: "a law firm of our acquaintance sent us a notice last year that key members of their team had put together a “White Paper” about changes in trademark law. I called the partner there that I knew and asked “why don’t you publish it as an ebook?” He said, “I don’t know.”
Another attorney to whom I told the story patiently explained to me that intellectual property like this was created to be given away to lure clients to the firm and impress them. Why, I was asked, should we publish it as ebook? What would we gain?
That’s pretty simple. Somebody will go to Amazon and search “trademark law”. You want to come up! And, in fact, you could price your White Paper at $100. It wouldn’t be great for sales, but you’d get the discovery benefit and you’d be putting a marketplace value on what you’re giving away for free. You win twice."

Google Penguin Tightens the Noose on Manipulative Link Profiles [Report] - Search Engine Watch (#SEW): "What does this mean for webmasters and SEO professionals? Continue to diligently clean up your inbound link profile. Identify bad inbound links, then remove them or disavow them. Google’s next iteration of Penguin could lower the tolerance level for spammy inbound links even further; this might even be what Matt Cutts was referring to when he stated at this year’s SXSW that the next Penguin release would be significant and one of the more talked about Google algorithm updates this year." (read more at link above)

The SEO Professional's Guide to Google Webmaster Tools | Search Engine Journal: "Google Webmaster Tools should be just as important to a SEO professional as Google Analytics. Google has continued to develop and maintain webmaster tools to include new features as the same time it is improving Analytics. The Webmaster Tools labs continues to showcase new features, such as author stats and structured data. However, while these new developments mean better optimization of websites, some of the classic features of Google Webmaster Tools still help SEOs keep a firm grasp on their metrics and how to improve." (read more at link above)

Search Engine People (blog)
This is your first encounter with App Store Optimization? Relax, SEOs are in luck. Many of your SEO tactics are transferable skills. Let's get started, describe your store. Test your App head titles and App meta descriptions. Grab some keywords out of ...read more at link above
Search Engine People (blog)

Responsive Site Redesign: 4 SEO Considerations - Search Engine ...
If you've decided to go responsive or you're considering a responsive site redesign, there are some issues you'll need to look out for from an SEO standpoint. . . . read more at link belowsearchenginewatch.com/.../Responsive-Site-Redesign-4-SEO-C...

Search Engine Watch
If you're at work, you know there are things that you could be doing right now to improve your website's SEO. Chances are you probably have a social network open in another browser tab right now as you're reading this, and you've probably checked your ...read more at link above

Can A Globalised SEO Strategy Save The British Economy?
Search Engine Journal
Utilising existing internet marketing and SEO strategies could well help many companies achieve the growth that is needed to help the UK economy begin to grow sufficiently. I do not claim it to be the only solution, merely a highly important part of ...read more at link above

Because search engine optimization (SEO) best practices and procedures change all the time, business owners should conduct periodic assessments to determine whether or not adjustments need to be made. If a business website isn't properly optimized for ...read more at link above
Entrepreneur

Bing Offers Recommendations for SEO-Friendly AJAX: Suggests HTML5 ...
Search Engine Land
Bing has announced support for HTML5 push State as a way to implement AJAX on a site in a way that enables Bing to crawl and index the URLs and content. As Google has supported this implementation since early 2012, site owners finally have an AJAX ...read more at link above

Increase Blog Traffic Without Using Google | Business 2 Community: "Despite the wild claims of SEO experts for hire, you don’t need to rank higher in Google to increase blog traffic on your site. Ranking higher in Google is just one way to increase traffic—and there are many other ways. - Use Incoming Links To Increase Blog Traffic - Thanks to SEO, most people today think of links primarily as a way to rank higher on search engines. But links were originally designed so that people could click them—and many people still do. If someone links to your site using an appealing phrase, there’s a good chance you’ll get a steady stream of natural traffic. The key to this strategy is to get people to link to your site on popular pages and to use appealing link phrases. Popular pages tend to link to other popular pages, so you’re going to need to build and market appealing high-quality content. . . . " Read more at http://www.business2community.com/blogging/increase-blog-traffic-without-using-google-0431465#7PLlE76Ldv1t1PhK.99more news below

Matt Cutts on What's Needed for SEO Success in 2013 and Beyond ...
SMX West is in its final day and it's been a great three days of sessions. Today's panel, What's Needed for SEO Success in 2013 and Beyond is filled with.www.searchenginejournal.com/matt-cutts-on.../60903/

RSS the SEO’s Worst Nightmare ! - SEO Blog by Dave Naylor - SEO Tools, Tips & News: "So here’s the issue everyone is just using the BBC’s RSS on their websites.
1) If you can get 30,000 backlinks in few hours for free, how many links would you buy?
2) If the BBC have done nothing but syndicate their website like millions of others, why would Google send them the unnatural link warning.
3) But this is the BBC, what if it was just another website that got hit, just like a new client of mine that is now spending 1000’s on the clean up of links that they never purchased, they just created great content on their site and let people syndicate VIA RSS."

How to Configure & Track Google Analytics Goals for SEO - Search Engine Watch (#SEW): "Goal measurement is quite possibly the most important element of SEO itself…because it is the justification of the investment.
Those new to SEO often want to base campaign success on surface value metrics such as rankings. Rankings are great because they provide exposure, visibility, and something even greater: traffic. Once upon a time, rankings and traffic were the main ways to measure the success of SEO.
Increased rankings and traffic are good, but if your traffic doesn’t convert, then SEO becomes a producer of negative ROI. Would you know that though if you weren’t tracking goals/conversions on your site."

As Google’s Search Share in China Shrinks, a New Competition Emerges | Search Engine Journal: " . . . Google remains the top choice among searches in the United States and is still the top search engine in the world. However, Google has not been able to establish that same position of strength in China, the world’s most populous nation with a fast growing consumer base. Now the news is getting worse for Google behind the wall as a new competitor is emerging in the search engine business in China. Alibaba, an Internet company based in China, is launching a new search engine titled Aliyun in an effort to not only challenge the most popular search engine in China (Baidu) but Google as well. Aliyun, which will be housed within the AliCloud subsidiary of Alibaba Group, will provide Web surfers with many of the same features that other search engines offer. The page will feature Internet, news, image, and map searches. The map service available on Aliyun will be powered by AutoNavi, a Chinese digital mapping and navigation firm. . . ."

Return of the Borg: How Twitter Rebuilt Google's Secret Weapon
Wired
Four years ago, Wilkes knew Google only from the outside. He was among the millions whose daily lives so deeply depend on things like Google Search and Gmail and Google Maps. But then he joined the engineering team at the very heart of Google's ...

Google said to prep e-commerce push
Washington Post
Google may be planning to take on Amazon in the e-commerce space, according to a TechCrunch report that claims the company is working on a discounted same-day shipping service that would take on Amazon's Prime program, as well as similar efforts ...

Google controls too much of China's smartphone sector: ministry
Reuters
Android has been Google's bright spot in China. In the third quarter last year, Android accounted for 90 percent of all mobile operating systems in China while Apple Inc's iOS system was at just 4.2 percent. (Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Edmund ...

How do Google searches work? Here's the answer
Fox News
Google has launched a new site, "How Search Works," featuring a clever infographic that not only reveals the process of search, but gives a real-time view of spam removal — a key component that shows the pages users don't see are just as important as ...

Interflora Google Penalty, Advertorials & SEO Content Marketing
Search Engine Watch
The well-covered Interflora Google penalty was lifted as of March 3 with many of the major rankings returning. Google has declined to comment on what specifically happened, which is out of character given that they generally make a big splash with ...

Return of the Borg: How Twitter Rebuilt Google's Secret Weapon
Wired
Four years ago, Wilkes knew Google only from the outside. He was among the millions whose daily lives so deeply depend on things like Google Search and Gmail and Google Maps. But then he joined the engineering team at the very heart of Google's ...

7 Ways to Take Advantage of Social SEOEverything PRSocial SEO is a concept that takes advantage of the role that social media plays in improving a site's social rankings. Today, the search engines place more weight on those SEO activities that are a cut above the norm. Therefore, a video or infographic ...Everything PR

Beware of Red Flags When Searching for SEO or Web Dev ServicesSearch Engine WatchIf you found the cure for Cystic Fibrosis and a press release was submitted, you will definitely benefit from the 10,000 links in the first 24 hours because the search enginesunderstand the ridiculous spike in traffic and links is justified. However ...

Interflora Gets Its Google Rankings Back, 11 Days After PenaltySearch Engine LandAs you can see in the screenshot above, Interflora is ranking again onsearches for its company name, and its Google+ brand box is appearing again on the right side of the search results. (As Dan Barker pointed out on Google+, that wasn't showing ...Search Engine Land

Five Best Desktop Search ApplicationsLifehackerFive Best Desktop Search Applications Whether you have the files on your computer neatly organized or they're all over the place, a great desktop search utility makes getting right to the file you need when you need it a super-simple proposal. All of ...

In Yet Another Internal Hire, Yahoo's Mayer Names Mann Search Head - Kara Swisher - News - AllThingsD: "Sources at Microsoft said the company is unlikely to extend the agreement without major concessions, and that any efforts to end the overall deal will be difficult for Yahoo.
“There is what [Yahoo] wants, and what’s possible,” said one person close to the situation.
In his new job, Mann will be in charge of improving the situation, which he has had some experience with. Mann, said one source, “used to spends hours at night on the phone with Microsoft trying to get concessions from their lack of RPS achievement,” referring to revenue per search.
Whether that means he can fix the situation — either by extricating Yahoo from the deal or improving Yahoo’s search experience to boost revenue and market share — is unclear. Mayer herself has a lot of search product chops from her time at Google, so she is expected to play a dominant role in the arena."

When Mayer Called Yahoo's Mobile Revenue "Nascent," She Wasn't Kidding - Kara Swisher - Mobile - AllThingsD: " . . . According to sources, Yahoo’s current search partnership does not preclude the company from working with Google in certain mobile monetization areas. In fact, the pair recently struck a deal, as Peter Kafka wrote, “to begin running some of its AdSense display ads on Yahoo sites, and will become one of several ad networks Yahoo uses to fill some of its pages.” That’s money in the bank for Yahoo, which Mayer — an ex-Googler, too — knows might extend well to mobile monetization and innovation. She has famously handed out free smartphones to all employees, which is a nice touch and also an important message to send to them and others. But it will take a lot more than an iPhone in every cubicle at Yahoo, because mobile is the issue she will be scrutinized for, given the stress she has put on it as one of the key ways to revive Yahoo. “There is no question Marissa will be judged on bringing the product management expertise she demonstrated at Google to Yahoo to make things consumers want to use in mobile,” one top Yahoo insider told me. “The thing is, she has to also actually make some real money doing it.”"

Tips on how to make SEO work for your business - Washington Business Journal: ". . . . At the 30,000-feet flyover level, here are some top tips for improving results on Google: Make pages for users first, not for search engines. There’s a term called “cloaking,” which means presenting different content to search engines than you display to users. That’s misleading and deceptive, and in the end will hurt more than it helps. Make navigation easy. Your site has to have a clear hierarchy and text links. Users should be able to reach any page from at least one static text link. Make content information-rich. Create a useful, information-rich site, and write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content. Make sure that your title elements are descriptive and accurate. The same applies to “alt attributes” — specific text in HTML that describes images in your site, and is picked up by screen reading and Web browsing software. Create descriptive, human-friendly URLs with keywords . . ."

How To Change Siri's Default Search EngineAppAdviceWhether you're new to iOS, or just want to pick up some useful tips and tricks, we're here to help. This is iOS Advice. Using Siri to search the Web can be very helpful. By default, Apple has given Siri the ability to search Google. Luckily, there's a ...

All web pages 'are 19 clicks away' - Telegraph: " . . . . The finding has been compared to the “small world” experiment, which found Americans were linked by an average of between five and six others. The famous research was later adapted as the basis of the game “Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon”, which aims to connect any actor to the prolific star of Footloose and Tremors via as few other actors as possible.
According to Smithsonian magazine, Professor Barabási credits the small world of the web to humanity’s tendency to organise based on region, country and subject area. Online, the role of “Kevin Bacon” is played by search engines, aggregators and other big nodes in the network."